Texas Colony

Texas Colony (テキサスコロニー, Tekisasu Koronī) was a partially completed space colony in Side 5 that became a battlefield during the One Year War. Originally conceived as a frontier-themed colony, It fell under Principality of Zeon control and served as the stage for decisive engagements between the White Base crew and Zeon forces late in the conflict.¹

Design and Early History

Texas Colony was built to emulate the landscapes of the North American frontier, complete with arid plains, ranch architecture, and wildlife preserves encased within the cylindrical interior. Construction halted when Side 5 became a battleground, leaving the colony sparsely populated.¹

Zeon Control

Following Zeon’s capture of much of Side 5, Texas Colony became a Zeon outpost:

• Used as staging ground by M’Quve’s forces
• Stockpiled with mobile suits and trap installations
• Served as hunting ground familiar to Char Aznable
• Employed as lure to draw the White Base away from Federation support²

Battles within the Colony

Two critical engagements unfolded inside the colony’s artificial landscape:

Amuro vs. M’Quve

• M’Quve lured Amuro into the colony intending to ambush the Gundam
• The duel showcased the Gundam’s evolving performance and Amuro’s tactical growth
• M’Quve was killed when Amuro destroyed his MSM-07E Z’Gok-E and subsequent Gyan sortie²

Char, Lalah, and Sayla

• Char used the colony’s terrain to duel Amuro, leveraging his knowledge of the interior
• Lalah Sune intervened in her MAN-08 Elmeth, revealing her Newtype abilities
• Sayla Mass confronted Char amid the battle, deepening the siblings’ ideological divide³

The distorted perspectives created by the colony’s curved horizon and faux desert environment influenced tactics throughout these fights.

Significance

Texas Colony illustrated several themes:

Theatre of Ambush

• Zeon exploited abandoned colonies as kill zones
• Environmental familiarity could offset technological inferiority
• Mobile suit combat adapted to unconventional terrain²

Newtype Emergence

• Amuro and Lalah’s confrontation foreshadowed Newtype-centric battles
• The encounter accelerated Amuro’s Newtype awareness
• Char recognised the shifting nature of warfare as psychoframe-capable pilots emerged³

Symbol of War’s Devastation

• Once planned as leisure destination, it became scarred battlefield
• Demonstrated how civilian projects were twisted by conflict
• Emphasised the precariousness of neutral or peaceful spaces in total war¹

Behind the Scenes

Texas Colony was created for Mobile Suit Gundam as a visually distinctive battleground contrasting Old West iconography with futuristic warfare. Director Tomino Yoshiyuki and art director Yasuhiko Yoshikazu used the setting to stage intimate duels amidst a warped recreation of Earth landscapes, underscoring the series’ theme of war invading places meant for civilian life.⁴

The colony’s name followed Gundam’s convention of naming Side colonies after Earth locations, while its abandoned status reflects production notes describing the hardships of maintaining colonisation during prolonged war.⁴

Appearances

• Mobile Suit Gundam

See also

• Amuro Ray – Visited the colony
• Kamaria Ray – Met her son there
• SCV-70 White Base – Visiting ship
• Side 6 – Neutral colony cluster
• One Year War – Conflict

External links

• Texas on the Gundam Wiki

Footnotes

1. Yoshiyuki Tomino (dir.), ‘Char and Sayla’, Mobile Suit Gundam episode 36 (Nagoya Broadcasting Network, 23 December 1979). ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Yoshiyuki Tomino (dir.), ‘The Duel in Texas’, Mobile Suit Gundam episode 37 (Nagoya Broadcasting Network, 30 December 1979). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Sunrise, Gundam Officials (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 2001), pp. 206–209. ↩ ↩²

4. Tokuma Shoten, Roman Album Extra: Mobile Suit Gundam (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1980), pp. 112–115. ↩ ↩²